CWGT2
The second season of the Crapwagon.com Grand Touring World Offline Series (CWGT2) began not long after the first one, with a visit to Louisville, Kentucky on December 20, 2004. Due to a nine-way tie for first place at the Nurburgring 24 (with MHF adding himself to the fray with the win there), the first (and so far only) one-race dash to decide the entire campaign was held at that venue January 22, 2005, with Rogue Leader emerging victorious as Season 2 champion (and Rookie of the Year) after LeMans winner Cigar2 pitted late. Due to time constraints, the Spa 24 Hours was not held in this season, the only time one of the "big three" endurance events was left off the calendar. However, an all-star event was held there at Rogue Leader's request, and thus the three core courses of CWGT have remained on every season's schedule. Top Stories After the success of CWGT1, TheStranger was looking to build on the action and excitement of that first go-around. At the same time, with the Redline GTP mod for NR2003 only weeks away, he felt - prudently - that going too long in a transition season would be a momentum block. As he was on Christmas break for much of the campaign, he recruited fellow CWGT participant FCYTravis to do broadcasting duties - a decision which had unforseen effects for both that season and (to some degree) future years. With the virtual broadcast contract, FCYTravis added a few races reflecting his real-life background in club racing and modern sports car racing (twin heats, visits to obscure Midwest club courses, et al). Most of these additions were reversed for season 3, except for the regular event at Bowman Gray Stadium - originally intended as a satirical short track event unbecoming of sports car racing, but now one of the most important non-endurance races on the calendar. Season 2 CWGT2 generally had a prequalifying pool of 44 drivers, though as usual this varied depending on track size (even with the best efforts of FCYTravis and TheStranger to ensure a full grid). Rookies who made their debuts in Season 2 (in addition to those rookies who had only competed in a handful of events in Season 1) were Cartcanuck, Cigar2, and Spinout, of which only Cartcanuck remained in the series into the prototype era. For the first time, ovals were added to the schedule - Louisville, Trenton, and Bowman Gray. Trenton has never been run in the prototype era, but the other two have been regular events in the years since, particularly Bowman Gray's 500 lapper (which has essentially remained unchanged). Louisville was chosen as the season-opener for this and the subsequent three seasons as a nod to two NASCAR practices: the concept that a random track, not Daytona, was the season-opener in Cup for years, and the old Winter Heats at Tucson that were a mid-90s ESPN2 staple. McB switched to Ferrari for this campaign (after acquiring the Mark Tortellini ride briefly in the offseason), while Evil Wilke ran a Corvette. Padre stuck to the BMW Z4 after having started his CWGT career in a Dodge (and having a few starts in an Aston Martin). WildrideFS became the first CWGT driver to ever receive a ban from the series, after admitting in several posts that he was a fan of the Indy Racing League. Season 2 would be the final seasons for Nadira and Madre (as new CWGT rules since then only allow actual members of Crapwagon to drive), along with LeMans winner Cigar2, Spinout, Chief, CWGT1 Nurburgring champion power&glory, Greg Pizzo, IMS-Pitraider, ctkatz, and fourrunner (who would pass away several months later). Cohiba took Season 3 off and Raptor was on hiatus for several years as well - both would not fully emerge as competitive forces until Season 6. A spotter's guide was provided, as well as a preseason chat thread . CWGT2 Team Chart Teams are listed in order of when they first participated in the series. Sponsors are listed without specifying which events they ran on the car. Rookies are marked with ®. *CREP was a subsidiary of CWRT until the Season 5 merger of CWRT and d.tuned Events Season 2 thread Race Results Selected Race Summaries Full Series Results Award Winners Category:Seasons